just some biblical advice from the experts.

Sometimes our life feels that way.

This is one of my favorite books in the world. Life will take me places.

But knowing that I am loved, “Kid, you’ll move mountains.”

(via of-hipsters-and-men)

beeforbunga:

This essay was posted on Facebook a few days ago and has spread like wildfire through the exchange student world. These words, passed from one exchange student to the next, sum up the life of an exchange student nearly perfectly. I admit, I edited it a little, but now, not only is it truth, but it’s my truth.

(Although, Mr. Phair would kill me for posting this with all the impersonal “you”s here. So what. It’s just for fun).

What is exchange?

Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.

Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.

Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to becoming someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.

Exchange is learning to trust. Trust people, who, at first, are only names on a piece of paper, trust that they want the best for you; that they care. Trust, that you have the strength to endure a year on your own, endure a year of being apart from everything that mattered to you before. Trust that you will have friends. Trust that everything’s going to be alright. And it is seeing this trust being justified.

Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how life will be once you return home. How that girl is going to react when you see her again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first, who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. Thinking about how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of timing Skype dates correctly, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.

Exchange is more thinking. Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were without meaning to. Asking, “What’s the point?” About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.

Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.

And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.

 

Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.

Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a third wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs, and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and it’s feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.

Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s hearing your little host brother asking where his big brother is. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a couch to sleep on in almost every country of the world. It’s getting 5 new families. One of them being a huge group of the most awesome teenagers in the world.

It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.

Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.

Exchange is falling in love. With this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.

Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…

Exchange is understanding.

Exchange is unbelievable.

Exchange is not one year in your life. It’s a life in one year.

Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.

Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst.

Exchange is something I will never forget, something that will always be a part of me. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.

 

Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That great people and douche bags live everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.

And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And, it’s trying to explain that to your parents.

Exchange is dancing in the rain, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.

Exchange is everything. And exchange is something one can’t understand unless they’ve been through it.

Today is day 302 in Sweden. I have beautiful friends, a lovely family, and two more weeks to love the rainy weather and the singsong language. Time is flying by and I am so excited to see where life takes me next. 

(via ktjwom)

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961).

This is how I feel today.

Also, I cannot wait to watch this movie again. It will always be my favorite.

(via myfotolog)

A new music craze of mine. Some feel good music in the sunshine. You can’t go wrong

(via woodendreams)